Peter Laviolette can finally craft his dream Rangers lineup
This surely was not unique to the Rangers over the course of a 2023-24 season in which at least half of the NHL’s 32 teams dipped into long-term injury relief in order to remain compliant under the cap.
The fact, though, is that head coach Peter Laviolette has not had the opportunity to draw from his team’s entire pool of personnel since Nov. 2, when Filip Chytil sustained his season-ending suspected concussion in the season’s 10th game.
Now, though, and at the most opportune moment, the Blueshirts have their full complement available and GM Chris Drury didn’t even have to pull any cap-related shenanigans, did he now?
The Rangers are healthy, or as healthy as any team could be expected to be at this juncture of the season. That is likely a by-product of the relative haste with which the team arrived at the Garden on Wednesday for Game 1 of the conference final against Florida.
This isn’t two years ago when the Rangers needed seven games in each of the first two rounds and wound up playing 20 playoff games in 40 days while having more than two days between games only once. These Blueshirts required only 10 games to dispatch the Caps and Canes in the preliminaries and have had six days between rounds. The Puddy Tats required only one more match to put away the Lightning and Bruins.
Chytil, of course, made his return in Game 3 of the Carolina series after a 188-day absence but then missed the final three games with a combination of illness and soreness. He played in the match that ended with the celebration in the corner following Artemi Panarin’s overtime deflection during which Blake Wheeler was pounding on the glass from the outside while in his street clothes.
Wheeler wasn’t available for that one just as he hadn’t been available since suffering a gruesome leg injury on Feb. 15 in the club’s 54th game. For the most part, the winger had been as much out of mind as out of sight. But not within the organization.
So now Laviolette has choices and they seem better ones than the coach had early in the season when he was choosing between Nick Bonino and Tyler Pitlick. For the first time, the coach has the opportunity to craft a lineup based on needs that might be exposed by an opponent—and in this case, by the powerful Panthers, who tend to do that to you.
There’s the speed-and-skill option with Chytil. There is the size and compatibility with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad option with Wheeler. There is the smashmouth option with Matt Rempe, healthy throughout but a scratch for three of the final four contests against Carolina. Jonny Brodzinski, who played the final two matches against the Canes, is an alternative.
“I think depth is really important in a long playoff journey,” Laviolette said. “Sometimes you can go into it and lose pieces along the way but we were trying to get pieces back and we seem to have a lot of those pieces becoming available options that adds depth to our lineup.
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“You have to make tough decisions as players become available. You base it on how your team is playing, how individuals are playing, what you might need in a series. There’s a lot of things that go into it.”
There is no hypothetical lineup in which a healthy Chytil is not a featured part of. This is the center, you certainly recall, who was in place between Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere on the second line when he went down.
Chytil brings an element of speed, skill and creativity to the lineup even if he is slotting in on left wing on the third line with Alex Wennberg in the middle and Kaapo Kakko on the right, primarily for defense- and faceoff-related reasons.
If Chytil can remain in the lineup, it is difficult to envision a role for Wheeler unless he would displace Jack Roslovic on the right side with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, though Laviolette does love veteran presence and if freshman Will Cuylle is getting single digits of ice time on the fourth line, who knows?
It looked ungainly at times, everyone would admit that, but the BFFs produced at a higher rate with Wheeler on their right than any other of their linemates (other than Panarin, who is not a realistic permanent option), recording 3.53 goals per 60:00. With Roslovic, the regular-season number was 3.06 per 60.
Wheeler does it differently than Roslovic, his 6-foot-5 frame causes a kind of chaos in the corner when he gets there for the battle. He’s also strong going to the net whereas Roslovic uses his speed and IQ to create open ice for the line. The deadline acquisition had a strong night in the clinching Game 6 in Carolina and was an element on the cycle.
Rempe, well, he does it differently from Wheeler and Roslovic and Chytil and Brodzinski and pretty much everyone. If the Panthers simply start whaling away on the Rangers as if it were the 1974 semifinals and Dave Schultz had clumps of Dale Rolfe’s hair in his fist, then maybe Laviolette would turn to No. 73.
As the coach said, it’s good to have options.
